Campaign group HACAN has called on UK air traffic controllers to follow the example of their Dutch counterparts and publish details of air traffic incidents at Heathrow soon after they happen. From last week the Netherlands will become the first county in Europe to give out information about individual incidents within days of them happening. The information about incidents at Schiphol will be published on the website of the Dutch air traffic control group, LVNL.

Official statistics show that the number of investigations into alleged aircraft near misses in the UK has reached its highest level in at least a decade. The figures reveal that 213 incidents were reported to aviation chiefs by the end of November last year — almost 25 per cent higher than for the whole of 2013.

HACAN Chair John Stewart said, “We accept that Heathrow has a very good safety record and we don’t want to be alarmist but more regular publication of the data would provide some reassurance for people. After all residents under the flight path would be the first in line if anything did go wrong.”